Sony Flexible on PlayStation 4 Cost

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Abandoning proprietary Cell architecture allows company to be competitive on price.

By Scott Lowe

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Sony is making a significant leap forward with the underlying technology in the PlayStation 4, but according to Sony Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida, it isn't limiting the company's ability to be nimble in terms of the console's cost.

When asked if the company was prepared to compete with other consoles and hit a more favorable price, Yoshida said that Sony's decisions to use custom AMD hardware instead of its own proprietary Cell architecture has allowed it to save on R&D and production costs.

"The architecture choice we have made this time around has allowed us not to invest to create dedicated factories and conducting factories and things like that — so that helps in order for us to provide an affordable price to consumers."

While Sony has yet to offer a sense of what the system will cost, it seems as though the company understands that with the advent of gaming-capable sub-$200 smartphones and tablets, consumers are more cost-conscious than ever.

Scott Lowe is IGN's resident tech expert and Executive Editor of IGN Tech. You can follow him on Twitter at @ScottLowe and on MyIGN at Scott-IGN.